He
then visited the strongest governments, and was eager to recover
Armenia, but was stopped by Vibius Marsus, governor of
Syria, who threatened war. Meanwhile Gotarzes, who
repented of having relinquished his throne, at the solicitation of the
nobility, to whom subjection is a special hardship in peace, collected a
force. Vardanes
marched against him to the river
Charinda; a fierce battle was fought over the passage,
Vardanes winning a complete victory, and in a series of successful
engagements subduing the intermediate tribes as far as the river
Sindes, which is the boundary between the Dahæ and
the Arians. There his successes terminated. The Parthians, victorious though
they were, rebelled against distant service. So after erecting monuments on
which he recorded his greatness, and the tribute won from peoples from whom
no Arsacid had won it before, he returned covered with glory, and therefore
the more haughty and more intolerable to his subjects than ever. They
arranged a plot, and slew him when he was off his guard and intent upon the
chase. He was still in his first youth, and might have been one of the
illustrious few among aged princes, had he sought to be loved by his
subjects as much as to be feared by his foes.
The murder of Vardanes
threw the affairs of Parthia into confusion, as the
people were in doubt who should be summoned to the throne. Many inclined to
Gotarzes, some to Meherdates, a descendant of Phraates, who was a hostage in
our hands. Finally Gotarzes prevailed. Established in the palace, he drove
the Parthians by his cruelty and profligacy to send a secret entreaty to the
Roman emperor that Meherdates might be allowed to mount the throne of his
ancestors.
